Source: UN Radio
The Government and religious leaders of Egypt must send a clear and categorical signal that the vicious crimes of rape and other sexual assaults will not be tolerated, said Zainab Bangura in a statement on Wednesday.

At least 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo in late January, some violently, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict expressed dismay at the sexual attacks on women protesters in Egypt, as well as the messages from prominent religious and political leaders that women are to blame.

"Egypt's story in the post-revolutionary period cannot be that of a country whose women marched in support of democracy, only to find their own freedoms denied, their lives directly threatened, and their vibrant political activism stamped out in a climate of fear and insecurity," she said.

 

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